Minus the Bear – Murder by Death – Observatory SD – 11-21-15

Seeing a band play a vintage album from over a decade ago is basically a sociological experiment, and looking over the crowd at the Observatory North Park on this particular night I couldn’t help but wonder how many people were seeing Minus the Bear for the first time since high school. I also can’t help but wonder what it’s like for the band revisiting a period of their life and career that, presumably, they’ve moved from. Every artist I know bookmarks chapters of their life with the art they were making at that time, deeply emerging yourself in creations from yesteryear is about as close to a time machine as we’ll know in my lifetime.
I think it would be very easy for a band to mail in a performance on a tour like this but instead what Minus the Bear delivered that night was nothing short of transcendent. Menos el Oso was a seminal album, and as a sophomore release basically cemented the band as a pillar in indie rock, now 10 years later they breathe true magic in bringing it back to life. For me the Minus the Bear live experience has always been something I’ve gotten more out of then the studio albums, that’s not a knock against their recorded material, which I’ve enjoyed for years, but rather a testament to the electricity they bring in concert. So on this night at the Observatory with all the trimmings of a show 10 years in the making Minus the Bear ripped through one of the best albums of their catalog and transported everyone there along with them.